India's extensive public protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act has again successfully managed to draw the attention of international media and found a place on their front pages.
The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian featured reports on the ongoing Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in India on their front pages on Tuesday.
India had last made headlines in the international media when Prime Minister Narendra Modi abrogated Section 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
While some foreign media highlighted strong protests that are being held in India against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, some termed the new law as 'anti-Muslim' and 'fascist'.
On December 17, The Washington Post featured an article with an image of the students of Darul Uloom University in Lucknow protesting against the Citizenship Act while trying to break through a gate. Police personnel can be seen in full riot gear holding position. They called it, "Protests over citizenship law continue to grip India," and published two reports on the same on page 12 of the daily.
On the same day, The New York Times went with the same picture on its front page and a headline that said, "India erupts in Protests as Modi Presses Vision for Hindu Nation." The report stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government "has rounded up thousands of Muslims in Kashmir, revoked the area’s autonomy and enforced a citizenship test in northeastern India that left nearly two million people potentially stateless, many of them Muslim." The New York Times also carried a story online on the internet shutdowns going on across India, highlighting that the world’s largest democracy shuts down the internet far more than any other country. "This week, 60 million people — roughly the size of France — have no service," the report noted. In their editorial, the publication drew parallels to the Citizenship Law with the Chinese detention of Uighur Muslims and the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
The Wall Street Journal’s front-page article with a headline that read, "Muslim Protests Spread Against India’s New Citizenship Law," commenting on the religious background of the protestors.
The Guardian carried an online article with the headline: "India protests: students condemn 'barbaric' police," on their front page. It also had a video clip featuring students of Jamia Millia Islamia University protesting against the Citizenship Law while the police are resorting to harsh methods such as firing tear gas inside the university library. The report stated that students in Delhi have condemned their "barbaric" treatment at the hands of police who stormed a peaceful protest against the new Act.
Israel-based publication The Times of Israel carried a report with the headline, "Six dead in India as protests spread over ‘anti-Muslim’ law," while Hazreetz only published various wire reports on the ongoing protests. Xinhua is the only Chinese news agency which carried a report on the same with the headline, "Fresh violence against new citizenship act in Delhi."
Pakistan Today also published an editorial with the title: India’s fascist Citizenship Amendment Act.